Alpha Tech continues pursuit of stolen equipment

CLEVELAND—Alpha Technologies U.S. L.P. reported the theft of equipment displayed at its booth at the ACS Rubber Division's International Elastomers Conference and expo Oct. 7-10 at the I-X Center in Cleveland.

A DisperGrader Alphaview along with the accompanying Dell computer tower and software were taken.

The company said the stolen items in total are worth approximately $39,000.

"We're still pursuing a variety of avenues trying to find it," said Linda O'Shea, director, product management at Alpha Technologies.

"We've had a number of activities. There are a number of routes that are still being pursued."

Alpha Technologies is offering a $3,000 reward for any information leading to the capture and conviction of the person or persons involved in the crime, which the company believes is grand larceny.

Shea asked that anyone with information about the incident contact her at 330-848-7242 or linda.oshea@-dynisco.com.

The company said it is working with the Cleveland Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security, customs authorities, the FBI and the Department of Justice International Task Force on Intellectual Property.

The I-X Center is reviewing surveillance footage at the hall, and the Cleveland police have taken fingerprints at the site.

The DisperGrader is an improvement in technology from existing products in the market, she claimed.

O'Shea said the DisperGrader meets a new ASTM standard and unlike other instruments is repeatable test-to-test and instrument-to-instrument.

"We are able to have a DisperGrader at different locations around the world inside of a large company and have all of the data agree and line up," O'Shea said.

The machine also features improved image capture and automatic analysis of the data, according to O'Shea.